The school has issued layoff notices to 10 of its 11 full-time lecturers, effective in August, according to members of lecturers union. (EMU officials say they issued notices to eight lecturers.) Lecturers, many of whom have held their jobs for several years, are upset by the changes and say the layoffs are unnecessary.

Jann Joseph, EMU's dean of education, says the opposite is true.

"We looked at the data. We looked at the enrollment patterns, and we were not convinced that we would have enough teaching loads and classes for all the people who were currently lecturers," she said. "We are just managing at a time of decline."

The article cited a drop in undergraduate and graduate enrollment levels.

In 2009, 4,672 students were enrolled in the College of Education. They took 57,373 credit hours. In 2013, there were about 500 fewer students and took only 48,796 credit hours. This year, credit hours are even lower at about 41,000.

The EMU dean of education says that in the early 2000s enrollment was at 90,000 credit hours.

Due to EMU's labor contract with the lecturers' union, the EMU Federation of Teachers, the school was obligated to notify lecturers in December if officials weren't sure of reemployment in the next academic year.